Tag Archives: bella depaulo

“I’m not gonna play much golf, because there’s a lot of work to be done.” –Donald Trump

All right, so the title of this entry is hardly ground-breaking. Even supporters of Donald Trump say he lies (and may justify it by saying all politicians lie and they don’t care).

But comparing the number and type of Trump’s documented lies to those of hundreds of people in studies reveal a couple of startling things. Social scientist Bella DePaulo, who spent two decades studying liars and their lies, wrote “I study liars. I’ve never seen one like President Trump.”

For one thing, he apparently lies much more often than the average person. For another, Trump’s lies are rarely made to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, like many of us do (“Why yes, I really do like your new, whatever-it-is you’re wearing.”) Instead, Donald Trump’s lies are often the opposite: insulting and hurtful. He lies to insult people much, much more often than almost all of the rest of us. In fact, according to records of his public comments, his lies are 10 times more likely to be malicious.

Come to think of it, having listened to Trump speak, maybe that isn’t too surprising either.